Am I following a stupid strategy?

Question

Hi all,

I'm starting preparation for my GMAT. I have an computer engineering background, and graduated from my bachelor with a 4.0 gpa from a target school.

I'm wanting to reconvert, and work on the business side, so a GMAT for a good Masters is a must.

I did a diagnostic test, and scored a 460 ( ??!! ).

I bought the Manhatthan Prep and OG books, and starting to dig into the quant part. I've read and now am practicing percent questions, which I have not been able to crack consistently for 3 days. I am just doing exercise after exercise trying to understand how to work them.

Is this a bad way of approaching my self study time; focusing area by area on the ones that I struggle with and charge on until I understand how to solve them?

Thanks

bb · Answer

Thank you for posting a very relevant topic. I feel many people arrow either dumb or embarrassed to ask this.

My suggestion would be to stick to the area you’re struggling with and figure out a way to overcome your weakness. I personally was struggling with both/neither group questions because I have never encountered them before in my life. I just could not solve them for the life of me. I could not remember the formula which is pretty easy but I kept confusing it at the time of studying so what I did, was memorize a question and memorize a solution to it and that way when I encountered both neither question, I could just plug in the numbers into the solution I memorized and I knew what the answer should be so I could always cross check and make sure it would be correct.

I have to tell you, that figuring out how to deal with the percent questions you’re struggling with, it’s not just a matter of solving some stupid questions for a stupid test. Mastering and finding a solution to your issue, is a huge step towards knowing yourself, overcoming a formidable foe, and gaining self-confidence for the rest of the test. It is very empowering and motivating when you can see yourself making progress. Don’t underestimate the importance of this victory. Good luck

PS. Part of the issue could be from the fact that you do have a high GPA and you are very accomplished and that is surprising and unusual for you to struggle with something. Many people from Mensa for example struggle with GMAT. We had a couple who assumed it would come easy and not require a lot of effort. Expectations made it hard for them.

Posted from my mobile device

PS. Part of the issue could be from the fact that you do have a high GPA and you are very accomplished and that is surprising and unusual for you to struggle with something. Many people from Mensa for example struggle with GMAT. We had a couple who assumed it would come easy and not require a lot of effort. Expectations made it hard for them. Posted from my mobile device

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Hi, GMAT is different ball game altogether. That is my take. I would recommend you to refer. GMATBusters https://gmatclub.com/tutoring/tutor/gma ... -345346421

Kinshook · Answer

Hi  howisthispossible

Can you share specific percent questions so that I can help you in solving them?
You can PM me your specific problems.

neelgmat · Answer

Hi,
Can someone please guide me as well on my preperartions..
I have just started brushing up my quant basics from 'RS Aggarwal quantitative aptitude'. I wanted to go through it before starting off. The book is quite thick and not exactly as per the GMAT syllabus. I think I will waste a lot of time if I solve it completely.
 Can someone please guide me on which topics to focus on from this book..

Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

howisthispossible · Answer

I've got to say I'm pleasantly surprised by how quick you all are to respond and how willing you are to help. Gives me a much needed boost.

I can do questions of type  "67.5% of 812 is 15% of what number?" 
My main problem is with translating the problem to a mathematical form. My algebra is somewhat sound, but I can't overcome the step of abstracting a word problem to an algebraic equation. Take for instance the below. I can't even conceive how to write it down algebraically. But of course when I see it as  xr = 1.15Xr  , then I can work with it

A particular parking garage is increasing its rates by 15 percent per month. Bob decides to reduce the number of days he uses the garage per month so that the amount he spends at the garage per month remains unchanged. Which of the following is closest to Bob’s percentage reduction in the number of days he uses the garage each month?

Thanks

bb · Answer

Ha. You are approaching it the wrong way. You do not need to solve that question. All you do is just plug in numbers and it makes solving that question so much easier.

Let’s say he pays $10 per day and parks 20 days a month. She pays $200 a month for parking. Increasing the price by 15% from $10 to 11.50 is going to cost $230. So he would have to park around 3 fewer days to keep the amount somewhat the same. So he would reduce by 3/20% or 15%

PS. It is often helpful to run a few simulations with several sets of numbers. For example I have made a mistake in my first simulation for frankly an unknown reason to me.

We could say he pays $40 per day in parking fees and parks 10 days a month. So it is $400/ month. 15% bump in daily rate is $46 so it is now 460 per month. And to pay about the same, he would have to skip between 1 and 2 days. Here I did not use a big enough number for the number of days so my result of 1-2 is a pretty big variance.

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GMATBusters · Answer

if you are preparing for GMAT, then do not use that RS Agarwal book.

use gmatclub book and solve OG questions.

howisthispossible · Answer

Wonderfully simple, thank you. I can't remember the last time I solved an equation by plugging numbers

. Any set of rules/guidance I can use that may indicate whether a problem can be solved by plugging?

bb · Answer

Plugging numbers has its own dangers as sometimes they work too conveniently so I would recommend trying 2 different sets and see if they add up. You will get better over time with plugging in numbers and you’ll see more scenarios to leverage them. Manhattan books should have a chapter about it.

The other trick to use his back solving, using the answer to find which one is the correct answer. It doesn’t work in all cases but between picking numbers and back solving you can probably address about 20-30% of the questions. These are useful strategies and tools to use unfortunately they require practice to learn how to use them and especially when to use them.

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howisthispossible · Answer

I see. Fantastic, thank you for your valuable insights. Can I find a repository of the hacks/tricks that can be used anywhere?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Looking at your study routine, I see that you are following a plan that I call “practice first and figure the rest out later.” In other words, you are doing practice problems before understanding the concepts on which those problems are based, and thus you are trying to learn solely from reading solutions to problems. Following such a study plan will lead to disorganized studying and ultimately hold you back from improving your quant and verbal skills. Thus, in addition to using your current resources, you may consider using a resource that allows you FIRST to learn the concepts and strategies related to GMAT quant and verbal and SECOND to practice with a large number of realistic questions.

If you decide to use some new prep materials, check out the reviews here on GMAT Club of the best quant and verbal courses.

You also may find my article with more information regarding how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

If you decide to use some new prep materials, check out the reviews here on GMAT Club of the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find my article with more information regarding  how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

howisthispossible · Answer

Thanks for the reply.

I may very well be following a brute-force approach to the GMAT. To give you more perspective on the issue, I am following Manhattan's First Quant Book (Fractions, Decimals, and Percents). I went through the theorical explanations of Percents part and realised that I seemed to get stuck on most questions on that topic. Thus I am now going through the theory layed out in the book with the specific aim of solving percent problems sourced online, on the OG, and on the Manhattan Prep guide. 
What do you think I should be supplementing my studies with?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi howisthispossible,

Many GMATers are unhappy with their initial practice scores, but you really shouldn't be. That 460 is just a measure of your skills right now - and you'll improve on that result over time as you learn more about the content, Tactics and little 'secrets' of the Exam.

For free math practice and help, I recommend that you set up an account at Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org). The site is completely free and makes the learning a bit more fun and 'game-like' (as opposed to the dry academic approach taken by most books). You might find it helpful to work on some of your general 'math skills' first - and while that website is vast, you should limit your studies to basic Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. After spending a little time re-building those skills, you can come back to your GMAT studies.

Before I can offer you any additional advice, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on your timeline and your goals:

1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for this first practice CAT Test?
2) Did you have to 'rush' to finish any of the sections on that Test?
3) What is your overall goal score?
4) When are you planning to apply to School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

howisthispossible · Answer

I have used Khan throughout my bachelor, indeed a very good source of information.

To answer your questions:

1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for this first practice CAT Test? 
Q33, V20

2) Did you have to 'rush' to finish any of the sections on that Test?
On the contrary, I had time left over for both the Verbal and Quant part

3) What is your overall goal score?
Since I finished undergrad with good grades, I'm shooting for 700+, so I can apply to Top 10 business schools (MIT, Oxford, LSE, Berkeley, Cambridge, LBS)

4) When are you planning to apply to School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
My top 6 for now is: MIT, Oxford, LSE, Berkeley, Cambridge, LBS
I'm planning to apply either before the end 2020/early 2021. If I can't score that high in that timeframe, I'm okay with waiting for next year's cycle, but that's obviously not prefered.

With regards to time commitment, what I have been doing and can realistically keep doing, is 1:00-1:30 hour in the morning before work, and 4:00 hours after work, before sleeping.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi howisthispossible,

To start, since you are interested in some highly-competitive Schools, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

As far as your studies are concerned, you have to be careful about confusing "quantity" of study with "quality" of study. I've never asked anyone to study 30+ hours a week - and while it's great that you might have the available time to study that much, with that number of study hours, you would run the risk of 'burning out' before Test Day (and that is something that we want to avoid). If you are going to try to study that much, then I suggest that you take one hour "off" for every two hours of study. For example, you could study for 2 hours, then stop for an hour, then study for another 2 hours, then take an hour off, etc.

It's interesting that you finished both the Quant and Verbal sections early. How much time did you have left on your countdown clock when you finished? I ask because finishing early is usually NOT a good sign - and it means that you may have 'rushed' through certain questions that you got wrong that you could have correctly answered IF you had slowed down, taken more notes, double-checked your work, etc. This is meant to say that your current 'ability level' might be higher than this initial 460 result (but going forward, you have to do the necessary work - on your pad - to earn those additional points).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

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